Why was Johnson impeached?
His Republican adversaries in Congress
accused him of defying the law, acting like
a king, and speaking and acting in a way
that was unbecoming of the presidency.
America’s 17th president took office upon
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, amid
a polarizing struggle in Washington over the
Reconstruction of the South after the Civil
War. Johnson was an outspoken, temperamen-
tal populist given to fiery speeches laden with
insults, blatant racism, and suggestions that
his political enemies be hanged. A semiliterate
tailor with no formal education, Johnson rose
to political power by aligning himself in his
home state of Tennessee with a loyal base of
poor mountaineers and small farmers seeking
a political champion. He was hated by that
era’s “Radical Republicans” for his adamant
opposition to their attempt to impose racial
equality and the rule of law on the defeated Confederacy. Rather
than root out the institutional white supremacy that had fueled the
Civil War, Johnson thwarted attempts to bring freed slaves equal
protection under the law. “Everyone would and must admit that
the white race is superior to the black,” Johnson said.How did he become president?
In 1861, Johnson demonstrated a stunning moment of political
courage when he became the only senator from a Confederate
state to remain loyal to the Union. “Damn the negroes, I am fight-
ing those traitorous aristocrats, their masters,” he said. (He owned
a few slaves himself.) In an attempt to forge some national unity,
President Lincoln, a Republican, appointed Johnson, a pro-Union
Democrat, military governor of Tennessee in May 1862. Two
years later—with the Civil War still 10 months from conclusion—
Lincoln added Johnson to his Republican re-election ticket. But
Johnson’s start on the national stage was inauspicious. Fighting
off a bout of typhoid fever on Inauguration Day, he reinforced
himself with three tumblers of whiskey and was visibly drunk
when he belligerently called out Cabinet
members by name, reminding them that
their power derived from the people. His
predecessor as vice president, Hannibal
Hamlin, yanked on Johnson’s coat in a
futile effort to stop his jaw-dropping,
17-minute-long diatribe. Forty-two days
later, Lincoln was assassinated, and
Johnson succeeded him.How did Johnson respond?
He abandoned Lincoln’s agenda. Once
elevated, Johnson declared that America
“is a country for white men” and guaran-
teed it would remain as such for “as long
as I am president.” In a meeting with
black abolitionist Frederick Douglass at
the White House, he suggested deport-
ing millions of black freedmen. He also
flouted Congress by pardoning more
than 7,000 Confederates, restoring
their property (aside from slaves), andauthorizing former rebel states to hold consti-
tutional conventions attended only by white
delegates. He accused Radical Republicans
of plotting a coup. As he lashed out at crit-
ics, opposition to “King Andy,” as he was
branded, began to crystallize in Congress.What did Congress do?
Some members searched for evidence con-
necting Johnson with Lincoln’s assassin,
John Wilkes Booth. The House investigated
Johnson’s drinking and whether he fre-
quented prostitutes. In March 1866, Johnson
vetoed a civil rights bill that would have
granted freedmen citizenship and the right to
sue and own land. Both houses of Congress
overrode the presidential veto—the first time
that ever happened on major legislation.What happened during his term?
Through the fall of 1866, Johnson toured northern cities to build
support for his lenient approach to Reconstruction, casting himself
as the only thing standing between whites and “negro domina-
tion.” He compared himself to Jesus Christ and his pardons
for Confederates to divine mercy. When a heckler in Cleveland
yelled, “Hang Jeff Davis!” Johnson suggested that his chief politi-
cal antagonist, Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (R-Pa.), should be hanged
instead. An aide begged him to consider the dignity of his office,
to which Johnson replied, “I don’t care about my dignity.” Henry
Raymond, publisher of The New York Times, asked, “Was there
ever such a madman in so high a place as Johnson?”What brought on impeachment?
During the tour, Johnson threatened to fire any Cabinet mem-
ber who opposed him, prompting Congress to pass the Tenure
of Office Act prohibiting such dismissals without Senate con-
sent. Matters came to a head in early 1868 when Johnson fired
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who transferred his belongings
to the War Department, barricaded the doors, and refused to leave
the building. The House voted 126 to
47 to impeach Johnson on 11 articles.
The first eight concerned Stanton’s
ouster; the ninth Johnson’s circum-
venting of the chain of command by
giving orders directly to a general;
and the 10th and 11th his conduct
and rhetoric in office, saying he had
attempted to bring “disgrace, ridicule,
hatred, contempt, and reproach” on
Congress. The Senate trial began in
March 1868 and was the hottest ticket
in Washington for a month. In the
end, with Walt Whitman watching
from the gallery, the Senate fell short
of the two-thirds majority needed to
remove Johnson by a single vote—that
of Sen. Edmund Ross (R-Kan.), who
may have been bribed. Johnson com-
pleted his term but had little support or
authority, and neither party nominated
him for re-election.Briefing NEWS^11
Johnson: Critics called him ‘King Andy.’The impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Gr
ang
er^
Co
llec
tio
n
Congress’ struggle to impeach
Then—as is the case today—Congress labored
mightily over what constituted an impeachable
offense. Should the process be understood nar-
rowly as a criminal proceeding that addressed
the breaking of a specific law or, more broadly,
as a political mechanism to redress what mem-
bers saw as Johnson’s unfitness for office?
Although Johnson’s racist rhetoric was not
illegal, Sen. Charles Sumner (R-Mass.) framed
impeachment as a final battle against slavery.
“Driven from these legislative chambers, driven
from the field of war, this monstrous power has
found refuge in the Executive Mansion,” he said.
Rep. Thaddeus Stevens called impeachment a
“purely political proceeding” that is “intended as
a remedy for malfeasance in office and to pre-
vent continuance thereof.” In the end, Congress
relied primarily on what historian Brenda
Wineapple has called “merely a legal pretext”—
Johnson’s violation of the Tenure of Office Act.The 17th president defied Congress, personally insulted rivals, and accused them of staging a coup.